Move and win roundup: Week of June 13, 2022

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover June 13 through June 17, 2022.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins

Archibald Williams has appointed Brendan Willenberg as its executive creative director (ECD) and creative partner. He joins the agency this month after clocking close to ten years with Clemenger BBDO as ECD, and five years at McCann Sydney as senior copywriter. He takes over from outgoing ECD Matt Gilmour, who has moved with his family to live on the Sunshine Coast.

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia has appointed Simon Bagnasco to a new role as head of creativity. Bagnasco is now responsible for Saatchi & Saatchi’s national creative output from both the Melbourne and Sydney offices and involves collaborating with the wider capabilities of the Publicis Groupe. Bagnasco joined the agency five years ago, as Melbourne ECD where he oversaw highly awarded campaigns including Donation Dollar and Made from Melbourne and 2021 was named the top ECD in APAC by the One Club creative rankings.

Jimmy Sutanto has joined Lion & Lion as creative director of Indonesia. Based in Jakarta, Jimmy will lead the market’s creative department reporting to Indonesia MD John Campbell-Bruce as well
as regional CCO Cheelip Ong.  Sutanto has more than 17 years of experience in the creative and advertising industry, having worked in agencies in Singapore, Indonesia and Myanmar, most recently as head of creative for Ogilvy Myanmar.

Programmatic ad firm MiQ has announced the promotion of current CEO ANZ Jason Scott to CEO of APAC, adding Southeast Asia's business growth and expansion to his leadership remit, which includes APAC countries excluding India and China, effective immediately. Scott will continue to serve as CEO for Australia and New Zealand, where he has expanded operations, growing revenue by more than 400% and launching new offices in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Global digital agency Dept has hired Pooja Dindigal has joined as its first global impact manager to support sustainability, impact and DE&I initiatives. As a Certified B Corporation, Dindigal will work with Dept’s B Corp team, made up of volunteers from across the organisation, to continually refine the agency’s impact strategy. She joins from B Lab US & Canada, where she helped to grow the B Corp Movement in North America while also serving as a member of B Lab’s Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Australian B2B credit and payments technology firm Shift, has awarded Bohemia its strategy, media planning and buying business following a competitive media pitch. Beginning with radio and digital, Bohemia will roll out a campaign over the coming 12 months, centring on Shift’s customer purpose, “We’re for doing business better.” 

Cybersecurity company Cloudflare, has appointed Pitchfork Partners for their strategic communications mandate in India.

Michael McConville is set to become the first global CEO for for Cummins & Partners in Australia. He will relocate from the UK, where he is managing partner for Adam&Eve DDB and will now manage offices across Melbourne, Sydney and New York. 

Edelman has appointed Tom Robinson as the firm’s new CEO in Australia. Robinson joins Edelman from MediaCom and takes over the leadership role following Michelle Hutton’s elevation to APAC vice chair last year. The appointment is effective August 1, and Robinson will report into Stephen Kehoe, Edelman’s CEO for Asia Pacific.

Langoor, a digital marketing agency, has appointed Vinay Rao as its head of client success. He will lead strategising and digital transformation on key accounts. In his last role, Vinay was responsible for the digital marketing & communications mandate for Blume Ventures.

Oddle, an omnichannel F&B technology company, has appointed SPRG Singapore as its B2B public relations agency. SPRG is tasked to deliver communications to drive awareness, build brand credibility, and engage the business community.

Glad U Came has bagged the PR mandate for The Hosteller, a chain of backpacker hostels across India. The agency will manage the brand’s strategic PR and media relations remit, and is tasked with creating and developing influencer marketing campaigns across digital platforms and touchpoints.

Mirum, a Wunderman Thompson agency and part of WPP Group, has hired Sooraj Keswani as director of brand management & strategy. He worked with Indian Express, Madison, Concept Communications and Hansa Cequity. Keswani will be based out of Mumbai office and will report to the Joint CEO Hareesh Tibrewala.

Lexer has been selected as the customer data and experience partner for Cotton On Group’s ecommerce site across nine different regions and for all eight brands within the firm. Cotton On will use Lexer’s platform to better understand its customers and build more personalised communications through the customer’s preferred communication channel.

Luno Malaysia has appointed Publicis Media as its media agency partner to manage all media strategy, planning and buying in Malaysia. The appointment was made following a competitive pitch between various agencies.

FTI Consulting has appointed Amit Pathare as a senior advisor. Pathare brings over 20 years of industry experience, working with Engie and running an independent energy consulting firm, advising clients in India, Singapore and Europe. He will work with FTI Consulting energy transition teams in India and Europe, across the economic consulting and strategic communications segments, advising clients on energy transition, decarbonisation strategies and green hydrogen commercialisation. 

Precious Communications has announced that it is establishing local operations in the Philippines. The agency has appointed Paolo Alba to serve as the client service director and country lead in the market. He previously worked with Fleishman Hillard and Ogilvy. In the Philippines, Precious counts loyalty and data-focused marketing platform Society Pass, trend forecasting company WGSN, a cybersecurity firm, and a cloud-based anti-money laundering monitoring software, as clients. 

Samba TV, a provider of television technology and omniscreen advertising and analytics, has expanded into Australia and hired a senior leadership team in the market. Tom Parsons has been appointed head of client & data partnerships, Damien Tang as data solutions director, and Simeon Swain as commercial lead, programmatic & audience. Parsons will oversee commercial partnerships with advertisers, agencies, broadcasters, platforms, publishers, and measurement firms looking to integrate Samba TV’s data and access omniscreen analytics. He joins joins from Gracenote, where he was VP of sales. Tang will lead data integrations, client solutions and oversee operations for Samba TV’s programmatic audience offering. He joins from Carsales/Audience360, where he was the audience & data commercialisation lead. Swain will manage programmatic sales and drive new commercial opportunities, having worked with Criteo and AdRoll/NextRoll. 

Digital commerce enabler in Southeast Asia Synagie, has made four senior appointments. At group level, Quek Wei Ling has assumed the role of group chief business officer while Malcolm Tan has been appointed as group chief financial officer. At the executive level, Neo Tze Siang has been appointed as chief business officer for omnichannel and consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) sectors while Evelyn Chua takes on the role of commercial vice president for Singapore.

Dentsu International has appointed Tomonori Inasaka as chief transformation officer and Taku Ozaki as chief client officer, Japanese business, for Taiwan. With 25-years’ experience in media and communication, Inasaka was the representative officer at Dentsu Group's London Office since August 2017. Ozaki joined Dentsu in 2004 and was formerly a general manager for the client servicing team in the Business Producers Division for Dentsu Inc.

Communications platform for the creative industries Little Black Book (LBB), has appointed Esther Faith Lew as Asia Pacific editor. The hire swiftly follows the announcement of Toby Hemming as managing director, APAC in May 2022. Based in Singapore, Lew was was senior editor at Northstar Travel. She will report to editor-in-chief Laura Swinton. From July, Lew will lead the production of a local newsletter to highlight the region’s creative work, along with insights, profiles and opinions. She will soon be joined by a reporter.

OMD India has appointed Charul Tomar as its new head of strategy. With over 13 years of experience, she was formerly partner- strategy at Mindshare. Tomar will be instrumental in augmenting Red Spine, OMD India’s nerve centre and enhance OMD Design, the agency's process framework. She report to Anisha Iyer, CEO of OMD India.

Communications consultancy Rice has expanded its Singapore team. Hsu Lin joins the agency as an account director, bringing with her over a decade of communications and public relations experience, having previously worked as associate director at Ninemer Communications. In addition, Rice has also welcomed eight new consultants: Gillian Pinto as a senior account manager, Magel Ordoñez and Saeful Hakim as account managers, Alexandra Koh and Sarah Sim as senior account executives, as well as Ainul Mardiyah, Nursyazwani Jamil and Deanna Nabilah as account executives.